Crowdsourcing systems are currently used to implement web services where solutions to tasks are solicited via open calls to large-scale communities. Crowdsourcing systems typically provide information describing tasks and, for each task, state a reward and a time period. During the time period users compete to provide the best submission. At the conclusion of the period, a subset of submissions are selected and the corresponding users are granted the reward. Examples of tasks found on existing crowdsourcing web sites are: the graphical design of logos, the creation of a marketing plan, the identification and labeling of an image, and the answering of an individual's question.
The rewards offered may be monetary or non-monetary; non-monetary rewards can take the form of reputation points in community question and answer sites and confer a measure of social status within these communities.
From the point of view of the providers of the tasks, it is difficult to guarantee the appropriate quality of submissions and to ensure that sufficient numbers of users make submissions for a given task.
From the point of view of the users it is difficult to decide which tasks to attempt in order to gain the highest total rewards in a given time.
The embodiments described herein are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known crowdsourcing systems.